MIDLAND, Texas — While we were all enjoying yesterday’s festivities, firefighters in Midland County were responding to calls made throughout the night.
According to the Midland County Fire Marshal's office, a total of 31 fires were responded to last night.
This is an increase from last year, where only 18 fires were responded to.
But the Midland County Fire Marshal had a reason to why that is.
“Well last year we did have a burn ban that started in June through September," Fire Marshal Justin Bunch said. "That had an effect on it because with a burn ban we could restrict certain sales of certain fireworks. This year there wasn't a burn ban because the drought index wasn't quite up to 5.75, which is issued by the Texas A&M Forest Service."
Another reason given by Bunch was the fact that now that everyone’s getting out again after COVID, there was more money around for fireworks.
“Because we were still coming out of COVID and this year we’re pretty much out of it," Bunch continued. "And so I think people were eager to spend some money on fireworks.”
While the jump from 18 fires to 31 fires sounds crazy, even if you take last year’s burn ban into account, Bunch says somewhere in the 30s is around the average amount for Fourth of July without burn bans.
But the county says that education is the key in order to keep the numbers of fires as low as possible.
“So, our biggest thing we can do is public education and trying to get people to go to these big firework shows, making sure they’re safe, and that they do call 911 if there is a fire,” Bunch added.
In Odessa, their first responders were also hard at work.
They had 66 Fire and EMS calls. They had 376 OPD calls, 213 of those being about fireworks calls.
The city would like to remind Odessans that fireworks are illegal in the city limits. You could be fined $431.